"This Is Not Your Country...You Committed Genocide": Aboriginal Australian Senator To King Charles
As King Charles concluded his speech at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Indigenous Australian senator accused him of stealing Aboriginal land. Senator Lidia Thorpe called out that it is not Charles’ country, and he “committed genocide against our people”.
The King was on his five days inaugural trip to Australia after becoming the King. He was accompanied by Queen Camilla. As he concluded his speech addressing the MPs and senators in the Great Hall of Parliament House on Monday, Thorpe approached the stage saying, “this is not your country”.
The independent senator from Victoria said, “You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us – our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people”. She is known for her fierce outspoken nature in advocating for Indigenous rights.
“You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty in this country. You are a genocidalist”, she added.
While the security guards were escorting her out, she shouted: “This is not your land. You are not my king. You are not our king”.
During this, Charles turned to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and talked quietly on the podium as security prevented Thorpe from approaching the monarch.
Before the king’s speech, Albanese and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, welcomed Charles and Camilla to Parliament House, thanking them for standing with Australians in good times and bad.
The Indigenous people in Australia have called for a treaty or treaties between Australia’s governments and First Nations peoples since early colonisation. The call was renewed in 2017’s Uluru Statement from the Heart which called for voice, treaty and truth telling.
The Statement was a result of a lengthy series of consultations conducted by Indigenous people in their own communities across Australia and proposes the creation of a special commission to oversee the making of agreements. The statement declares that sovereignty “has never been ceded or extinguished, and coexists with the sovereignty of the Crown”.
(With inputs from agencies)
